Do building company's restrictions still stand if they have gone bust

nichart20

We bought a house from Magellan that is now 6 years old, we are wanting to change the garage into a playroom but it has restrictions on any changes to the front for 10 years, as the company has gone bust will the 10 years still stand?

southcoastrgi

it's normally the council that put the restrictions in place not the builder so i think you need to contact them for their advice

nichart20

Thank you, I will give them a ring before putting the change of use in

Yorkie1

No, OP I think you are referring to the covenants imposed by the developer and nothing to do with the council.

OP, you'll need to get the terms of the specific covenant from your title deeds, and I suggest you then post them on the House Buying forum where there are experts in land etc issues. It will depend on whether the benefit of the covenant is passed on to successors / heirs or not, for example.

This forum is more for DIY etc stuff.

nichart20

Thank you I will get all the paperwork out tomorrow

southcoastrgi

I don't disagree with you Yorkie but it could just as easily be restrictions imposed by the council to keep the estate looking the same, this is far easier to check with a phone call to the council as the OP may not have access to their title deeds as they may still be lodged with their solicitor & of course depending what the OP wishes to change

krlyr

As a stop-gap, could you maybe partition part of the garage off so the front remains the same but you get to use it as a room? No idea on the planning regulations of this but seen it done by a few people to make use of an unnecessary garage.

joinaman

As Krlyr says

Do you need the whole lenght of the garage?
You could put a stud wall across the garge which would allow the door to still open and creating a store room, so still giving the appearance of a garge, while then fiting out the remainder as you require to form new play room
Saves on the cost of changing the frontage and also gives you a garden/toy store room to the front
If you need all the spce, just build a stud wall tight up to the door and leave the door locked

Sgt_Pepper_2

joinaman wrote: »

As Krlyr says

Do you need the whole lenght of the garage?
You could put a stud wall across the garge which would allow the door to still open and creating a store room, so still giving the appearance of a garge, while then fiting out the remainder as you require to form new play room
Saves on the cost of changing the frontage and also gives you a garden/toy store room to the front
If you need all the spce, just build a stud wall tight up to the door and leave the door locked

And if the garage doesn't have a window, where is the natural light going to come from. Same with access from the house. Putting in a new opening for doors and windows require building regs.

krlyr

I was working on the assumption there's an access door already. Is there necessarily a need for natural light? It would be nice but at this time of year there's not going to be much natural light in the evenings anyway. Daylight bulbs could be used if necessary. We grew up with a loft as our playroom and no windows, didn't do any harm for the short periods of time we spent in it (not really any different to teens shutting themselves in their bedrooms with the curtains shut to stop glare on their computer screens!)

It might not be practical but it was just a suggestion for a possible temporary solution.

Leif

krlyr wrote: »

As a stop-gap, could you maybe partition part of the garage off so the front remains the same but you get to use it as a room? No idea on the planning regulations of this but seen it done by a few people to make use of an unnecessary garage.

I saw quite a few of those when looking to buy a house. I suspect it breaks regulations, as for example a new room would have to satisfy insulation regulations, but clearly the fact that it looks like a garage from the front probably means it is not reported/detected.

Sometimes these restrictions are done as a money making exercise by the builder i.e. you pay us some dosh and we'll relax the condition.